Manchester , UK, 2014-6-20 — /EPR Food & Beverage News/ — “The Show” organised by the country’s leading distributor of catering equipment, Lockhart Catering Equipment, is arriving in Manchester on Wednesday 25th June for its first event outside of London.

In its fifth successful year “The Show” can proudly call itself one of the UK’s most comprehensive and innovative catering shows, and has attracted industry experts including mixologist James Trevillion from Bonzer and TV chef and food consultant Andy Bates from Brazilian Street Feasts to its first northern event.

Having been well received with customers and suppliers alike, the event will offer up its winning recipe of demonstrations, the unique opportunity to see new product ranges before anyone else and the chance to network with over 30 leading suppliers.

The innovation zone is a must visit for any industry professional who likes to stay one step ahead of innovative tools where there will be the chance to see the latest equipment in action, and not to be missed tasting sessions. Delegates will also be offered a tour of the world famous football stadium.

“The Show” will return to Wembley later in the year, with dates to be announced in the coming months.

Attendance is by pre-registration only, so to reserve your place or if you have any queries, email the.shownorth@bunzl.co.uk, call 03701 678678 or register directly here.

Images:

Exhibitors and customers network at last year’s show.Lockhart’s representative mixing things up at last year’s show at Wembley.

Lockhart Catering is country’s leading distributor of catering equipment, supplying the largest range of light and heavy equipment available to the UK caterer. Lockhart is not affiliated to particular manufacturers, allowing them to offer a wide range of options and, more importantly, advise what’s right for specific client requirements.

If you are planning an event of any kind, from a birthday party or a wedding to a large, international corporate event you need the tools to do the job right. This means you need a suitable venue and so much more. You need food, furniture and catering equipment.

But the big question is do you hire equipment or buy it outright?
With an unlimited budget and lots of future events in the books, you might be tempted to buy. But there are a number of ways that catering equipment and furniture hire can prove a more worthwhile alternative.

We’ve listed 8 of the best:

Reasons for Hiring Catering Equipment & Furniture

1. Affordable
If you only require catering or kitchen equipment for a short period, hire specialists like Allens Hire in London can offer an attractive price which stacks up favourably against the purchase price of the same things.

2. Storage
Buy catering equipment or furniture and you’ll be burdened with looking after it when it isn’t in use. With hire furniture, tableware and more, you don’t have to worry about these items until they are required to ensure your event is a success.

3. Transport
At Allens Hire, a fleet of drivers are ready and waiting to deliver catering equipment, such as tableware, tables, chairs and kitchen equipment , to your door; no matter where in London or the South of England your event is to be held. This is one of the major benefits of hiring for an event. We bring the equipment to you.

4. Maintenance
You might wish to purchase your own outdoor BBQ, garden heaters or chest freezers but when disaster strikes you could be sorry you didn’t simply hire them out. We maintain our inventory of gas and electrical products so there is a good range to choose from. We never distribute an item without first performing a series of checks.

5. Safety
When gas appliances are involved, health and safety should be a high priority. At Allens Hire we are gas certified and PAT trained to ensure that our equipment is safe to use when it leaves the premises and each appliance carries Safety and Operating instructions to ensure that you have the best advice whilst appliances are in your care.

6. Cleanup
Once your event draws to a close, and the fun is over, the hard work truly begins. At least that’s the case if you’ve used your own tableware and it’s your job to clean up. When you hire catering equipment from Allens Hire, we offer to do the cleaning for you, so you can return the equipment dirty for us to do the job for you and alleviate you of this task at least!

7. Trends
Fashion is constantly changing. But that doesn’t simply mean that clothing changes. The popular ways to decorate an event change too. When you buy furniture, tablecloths and more, their so-called ‘trendiness’ may diminish over time. But a hire company like Allens remains at the forefront of the event planning industry, providing insight into trends of the moment and has a carefully chosen portfolio to theme your event in your chosen colours. Every time you host a party, sporting or corporate event you will have access an excellent range of equipment for the job; and the looking good to boot.

8. Tailored
No two events are ever truly the same and so the best catering equipment and furniture projects are truly bespoke. That’s what you get when you hire catering equipment for each individual event. You can request exactly the things you need to cater a birthday party of less than 50 people or a corporate event for hundreds. Allens Hire advisors can work closely with every client to ensure that they receive a tailored project that is perfect for their needs.

Call Allens Hire on 0208 574 9600 (London) or 023 8065 2316 (South Coast) to talk about your catering equipment hire, event hire and furniture hire needs. Whether you are arranging an event in a park, a palace or a party at home we can provide everything that you might need to ensure that the event is enjoyed by all.

With Christmas party season fast approaching, a leading UK hire company is urging organisers to place high quality chairs on their Christmas list.

Allens Catering Equipment & Furniture Hire provides party chairs and much more to London and the South of England. Thanks to years of experience in the events industry, the company knows just how important it is to ensure that visitors are seated comfortably. With a matter of weeks remaining until the season of good will, it is important that event organisers nail down suitable chair hire; or they could find themselves relying on a Christmas miracle.

One of the most popular seating choices of the past few years is the Allens Hire range of Camelot chairs, in silver and white or festive gold. A wide range of other colours are also available.

Camelot chairs have enjoyed tremendous popularity in recent times; particularly after they were chosen to seat the Beckham wedding reception. Sometimes referred to as the Chivari or Chiavari chair, these attractive party chairs are a modern reinterpretation of a luxury chair which originated in Chiavari, Italy.

The chairs have seated some of the most prestigious venues in the world, including the Sydney Opera House and the National Portrait Gallery. They’re also a regular feature in celebrity magazines and lifestyle programmes. As such these glamorous chairs are the perfect choice for the biggest event in your annual social calendar.

In addition to a super strong yet lightweight build, these chairs are built with stackability and transport in mind. Steel bolts are used instead of screws for maximum safety and stability.

When customers place an order with Allens, their chairs are thoroughly inspected before delivery. Any necessary repainting or repairs are completed before hand. All customers need to do is choose the style of chairs which best suit their needs and place their order as soon as possible.

Kevin McGuinness, owner of Allens Catering Equipment & Furniture Hire, said: “Christmas parties are often the biggest event in a business’ social calendar. As such it is amongst the busiest periods in the hire industry.

“The best way to ensure that any event is suitably furnished is to place an order as soon as possible; especially when choosing the most popular ranges, such as our beautiful Camelot chairs. We currently have 11 lorries, a number of fully staffed premises and many furniture hire collections to choose from; so we’re well placed to meet seasonal requirements.

“If you have a particular chair on your Christmas list it pays to make a booking now”.

For more information on tables, chairs, cutlery, glassware and catering equipment for your Christmas party, pay a visit to http://www.allenshire.co.uk today.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment is very proud to be able to supply a full range of Royal Genware Tableware to the Catering Industry. For many years Thames Valley Catering Equipment has supplied virtually every piece of catering equipment that is of use to the Catering Industry and it is always looking to keep its full range of products as up to date as possible and therefore to reflect the needs of its customers. The catering business has always been extremely competitive and in the present time of financial cut backs and belt tightening this is even more important and it is necessary for the restaurants, cafes and catering establishments to have the best chance of competing successfully with its competitors. Food presentation has always been very important but these days even the small establishments are expected to achieve very high standards and to make this happen there not only needs to be excellent food quality but also it needs to be presented in the right way and on the right crockery.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment has recognised this need and is very pleased with the full range of Royal Genware Fine China Tableware which it is able to supply to the industry. This Royal Genware Fine China is their Classic design and is made to give the china a pure white appearance, which has been made with alumina in its mixture to give a low water absorption whilst giving the finished article a strength that can deal with the rigours of the catering industry. The hard work that crockery and china has to deal with in the catering trade is one of the reasons that Thames Valley Catering Equipment has chosen the Royal Genware range. There are some excellent plates to present the food on with the Classic design having a wide side rim whilst the Coupe design has a flat base with a curved edge. If none of these designs fit the bill there is the Genware square plate range. All of these designs work well in a restaurant or eating establishment and can be sourced in a range of sizes.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment is particularly pleased to promote the Royal Genware range of presentation plates and dishes, which certainly give the user a great advantage over many of their competitors. The range covers quite a number of different options with an oblong single, double or triple spaced dish, which allows a range of different presentation methods to be achieved. The whole business of getting the best out of the fine china has been examined and the results, which have been achieved are excellent. The Royal Genware Fine China Tableware also produces a range of dishes for sandwich and small meal presentation which is ideal for the lunchtime or teatime trade as well as the establishment that provides drinks and snacks in the evening.

“Thames Valley Catering Equipment is pleased to announce that the price range of this Genware range is excellent and will provide a great advantage to the establishment without breaking the bank.”

Thames Valley Catering has developed a business that supplies catering equipment to the complete commercial market. They supply equipment of the highest quality at very competitive prices for a very competitive market. All the equipment can be purchased on the Internet for delivery in a few days. Expert advice is available if required and Thames Valley Catering is only too pleased to ensure that the customer is completely satisfied.

Now that summer is around the corner and the weather is showing signs of emerging from the Siberian winter that the whole company has endured people wish to get outside and enjoy the weather and the outdoors. Barbecues are all the rage at home but the professional barbecues are less common. There has been many a comic who has made fun of the best way to burn good food is on a barbecue but Thames Valley Catering is pleased to promote one of the kings of the barbecue business namely the Cinders Slimfold Hotelier Barbecue as a piece of equipment that totally disproves this myth. This is a luxurious piece of equipment built by a British company based in North Yorkshire who has developed excellent equipment for the commercial trade. The Company has now developed into the USA and has an excellent business in Florida, a good USA home to the barbecue.

The Cinders Slimfold Hotelier Barbecue is a piece of catering cooking equipment designed to be erected outside in minutes and to fold away to a flat square when finished. This is ideal for the hotel or restaurant that holds or wants to hold an outside barbecue as a regular feature. The set-up is in minutes and powered by bottled propane gas it heats up in less than five minutes ready for cooking to start. Thames Valley Catering is impressed with the Cinders Slimfold Hotelier Barbecue quality of manufacture being made with stainless steel shelving and mahogany ends with flush fitting controls, this gives a superb look to the barbecue and the quality and speed of the cooking is second to none. The working top has two off 800mm x 457mm heating zones so that one can be used for one product and the other for another product. Therefore fish can be cooked on one half and meat on the other half of the grill. The Cinders Slimfold Hotelier Barbecue has a fitted stainless shelf that fits on 2 runners so that it can move over the full length of the grill, this is ideal for cooking vegetables on if required and also is used to clean the grill at the end of the evening. To clean the grill put the shelf over the top of the half to be clean turn the gas up to full and after a short time all the waste has been burnt off the grill by reflected heat from the shelf and the unit can be wiped clean.

Thames Valley Catering are pleased to note that the Cinders Slimfold Hotelier Barbecueoffers the outside caterer an excellent piece of equipment, with a 2 year warranty that is as versatile as any barbecue with a quality and production rate second to none.

Laundry 365 were set up to supply all sorts of commercial laundry equipment by a group of dedicated service people with years of experience in the trade with the added advantage that the service element was supplied 365 days a year. The company has been very successful in its approach and have realised that they have years of experience supplying not only the commercial laundry business but also the service industry as a whole, where that service industry supplies services to people in bulk. To this end Laundry 365 now supply commercial warewashers, which can clean bulk loads of crockery and glasses efficiently and with a high quality finish.

Laundry 365 is pleased to promote the Fagor range of warewashers and in particular the Fagor AD12BBT warewasher which is a pass-through warewasher meaning that the crockery or glasses are placed into a basket ready for washing. The baskets are then placed in the Fagor AD12BBT warewasher at bench height and are removed at bench height when finished. This means that there is no bending and lifting other than a straight transfer of the baskets and their loaded contents into the warewasher. This reduces any lifting problems that are caused by under counter warewashers and it also speeds up the process. Laundry 365 notes that the Fagor AD12BBT warewasher will efficiently clean some 1,200 dishes per hour ready for re-use. This reduces the amount of crockery and or glasses that are required for the commercial operation of the unit and returns those used back into operation in a very short time. This is ideal for bulk crockery or glass usage operations such as large restaurants, canteens, schools and hospitals and also cruise ship operations as well as large industrial type food processors.

The Fagor AD12BBT warewasher is a very simple piece of equipment to use being limited to just three working programmes, which are quite sufficient for virtually any normal operation. The typical working programmes take just 90 seconds or 180 seconds, which takes care of both the fast speed operation for the normal items and a slower more determined cycle which deals with the more difficult cleaning problems. The water temperature is typically 60 degrees C with a rinse cycle temperature of 90 degrees C, which will leave the dishes ready to dry quickly and efficiently. The wares cleaned are ready for putting away into the storage cupboards or can be returned straight into the system for instant reuse if that is required.

Laundry 365 is pleased to note that the unit is made of stainless steel and that all Fagor units come with a great reputation of strength and reliability from many years extensive usage in the industry. The Fagor AD12BBT warewasher has low running costs and is a real workhorse in the kitchen or factory and will delight the user. Laundry 365 will be delighted to advise anybody on the best piece of equipment for their own operation as this comes as part and parcel of the sale.

MITIE, the FTSE 250 strategic outsourcing company, has announced the launch of a new brand for its catering business: Gather & Gather.

Based around a culture of bringing food and people together, the new identity will feature as the new trading name and customer facing identity for MITIE’s catering business.

Gather & Gather focuses on bringing together the best ideas, ingredients, recipes and inspiration from the food industry so that customers can gather together to enjoy them in the workplace.

Two years ago MITIE recruited a new management team to lead its catering business under an entrepreneurial investment model. Since then, the business has more than trebled its turnover through new contract wins and the acquisition of award winning hospitality company Creativevents, making it the fastest growing caterer in the UK and Ireland.

The rebrand to Gather & Gather marks an important step in the evolution of MITIE’s catering business. Developing this ethos has been an integral culture shift for the team behind the business, and now forms a keystone for the brand.

The rebrand combines a new approach to marketing with a learning and development programme for all staff, to understand the values that underpin the name change.

Allister Richards, managing director of Gather & Gather, who has led from the front over the past two years, said:

‘Gather & Gather is a reflection of our business maturing from focusing on what we do, to how we do it. Bringing the ideas and creativity of a dynamic team together, and translating that into delivering great service.

“We’re readdressing the balance between client, customer and caterer, and putting the customer at the heart of what we do, offering something truly different to the marketplace.”

Gather & Gather will roll out throughout the spring from 1 May 2013. Full details of the brand experience will be shared at the launch event on Tuesday 23 April, at The Brewery in central London.

Thames Valley Catering supply a full range of products for the catering industry from pots and pans to self-determination cooking units and everything in between. One piece of equipment designed solely for the industrial size kitchens is the Bratt Pan. This piece of equipment was named after the German word for frying but strangely it does a lot more than frying and is not called a Bratt Pan in Germany but a kippentopt, which translates, as a tilting pan. In fact it is a large pan often square which will do a multitude of different cooking functions on a large scale.

Thames Valley Catering is pleased to promote the Blue Seal Bratt Pan range of commercial cooking equipment, which is designed for the large industrial scale kitchens who cook individual food items in bulk. The Blue Seal Bratt Pan can typically cook large quantities of one particular product in a large pan of typical volume of 80 litres capacity. The Bratt Pan can tilt in order to carry out certain operations and this can be a manual or an automatic function dependent on the customer’s preference. The typical Blue Seal Bratt Pan is fuel by gas and has a number of individual controls. It is ideal for cooking a range of products such as casseroles, soups but can basically carry out most cooking functions being able boil, poach, roast, steam, grill, shallow fry and deep fry. Thames Valley Catering are particularly pleased with the variation in functions as this is ideal for a large kitchen that produces a bulk meal for daily distribution but which wants to vary the meal from day to day. This is ideal in operation like hospitals, large industrial canteens, school dinner production and large office functions. The large restaurants often have them to produce large quantities of soups and casseroles or deal with weddings and banquets where single item menus are standard practice

The Blue Seal Bratt Pan is very versatile and Thames Valley Catering is impressed with the way that it can be used to prepare a meal. Meat can be browned in a Bratt pan with the lid open then water can be added and the soup or casserole started, different vegetables or spices can be added throughout the cycle as required and this is where the tilting mechanism works. Additions are made after the pan is tilted so that there is no chance of the operator being burnt by the steam. The tilting system is also used to pour the cooked food into containers ready for further distribution or storage.

The Blue Seal Bratt Pan is designed to be linked up to mains water to remove the requirement to pour this in later but addition is made by turning a tap outside as and when required. The construction of the Blue Seal Bratt Pans is from galvanised steel, which gives a sturdy construction. The lid of the Bratt Pan is double skinned and the temperature control is accurate from 50 to 320 degrees C. This system is ideal for the large industrial kitchen and it is well worthwhile examining the options that Thames Valley Catering can supply to the catering business.

Thames Valley Catering Company are pleased to supply the full range of Sammic Dishwashers which are suitable for the full range of commercial and utility companies as well as hospitals, schools and other public service organisations. Thames Valley Catering is confident that there is a solution to most dish and glassware washing situations and the Sammic range of products is geared to find not only a system that will work but one which will complete the work in the shortest time and with the most efficient usage of labour and water and power resources.

The Sammic Dishwashers come with a double skin manufactured wall system which is very good at reducing noise level of the machine to a very low level and maintaining a good insulation of the machine to stop heat loss. The machines are front loading for easy access and also all servicing and cleaning can be carried out through the front door. This makes any work or servicing very easy to access and reduces any downtime levels required to keep the machines in good order.

Thames Valley Catering is pleased to be able to talk to the customers to examine their requirement for their cleaning work and this expertise has been gained over many years by its qualified staff in the industry. In this manner it is possible to jointly get the best possible Sammic dishwasher for the application required.

The machines all come with an automatic rinse aid dispenser and some are fitted with a water softener system to deal with situations where hard water is the normal supply. The production cycles usually are threefold with a 120 sec, 180 sec and a 240 second time cycle dependent on the type of wash that is required. This speed of cycle is capable of a very large product wash and probably the biggest problem is being able to feed the dishes or glasses into the system quickly enough to make the full use of the fast cycle times of the machine. Thames Valley Catering Equipment is able to discuss the best ways of getting the maximum out of the machine with the minimum amount of labour.

The Sammic Dishwasher supplied by Thames Valley Catering is able to rinse at a predetermined temperature which remains constant through the rinse cycle usually at about 84 degrees. It is the quality of the dish washing which Thames Valley Catering are most pleased as to customers throughout the trade require quality of cleanliness of the finished product to be as good as possible and this quality to be maintained on a regular basis. The Sammic range of dishwashers give this quality on a regular basis and simple daily cleaning of the machine will keep that quality day by day.

Thames Valley Catering website will give all the information required and allow the customer to peruse the full range of machines available. The prices that will be quoted are some of the most competitive in the business and for any queries a call or email to Thames Valley Catering will bring an answer.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment is able to supply a vast range of catering equipment to all parts of the trade from the restaurant to the large hospital and company kitchen but they also try to seriously look after the smaller user as well. With this in mind Thames Valley Catering is pleased to promote the smaller range of Sammic commercial dishwashers aimed at the smaller cafes and restaurants and other smaller catering establishments. The smaller units sometimes feel a little left out as the large companies seem to have all the best equipment but Thames Valley Catering is able to offer some excellent Sammic dishwashers to satisfy even the smallest requirement.

The company realises that any dishwasher is fairly costly and for the smaller unit that can be very important but the Sammic range is very good in quality and excellent in price. The Sammic SL-23 front loading dishwasher is a very good example of the type of equipment available having a 400 mm x 400 mm square basket, which will turn round a complete load in 180 seconds. This speed of operation will bring savings on crockery purchased and will give an excellent finished product. There are other savings to be made in water usage as the Sammic front loading dishwasher uses an optimal water flow system to reduce usage to a minimum. Sammic have fitted a detergent dosing system for speed of usage and there is an automatic rinse aid built into the dishwasher to ensure a high class finish.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment has a great deal of faith in these units, as they will bring serious savings to the business. The first saving is obviously in operator costs, as the speed of this unit will reduce the dishwashing time to around 20% of the hand washing systems. Secondly there are savings in crockery stocks and also in water and detergent usages. The dishwasher from Sammic will fit in well in a small kitchen as it requires little working space that is often at a premium in the smaller establishments and yet it has a high workload potential for such an establishment.

The Sammic SL-23 front loading machines are also ideal for larger concerns that need an extra machine either as a spare for the disaster day that the larger machines are broken or out of action for major cleaning of the present unit or as a separate unit for certain goods for example glasses or other special delicate products. The units are flexible and the space requirements are small and are ideal as a “Get of jail” card.

Thames Valley Catering Equipment would be delighted to answer any queries or give advice on the best and most appropriate Sammic dishwashers, there are years of experience available in the company and any question posed will almost certainly have been posed before. Sammic dishwashers have been around for some time and the quality and technology is excellent for the conditions they have to work in and the work they have to do and Thames Valley Catering Equipment is pleased to recommend their usage.

The description almost sounds like the ultimate in high tech gadgets but probably the most impressive piece of equipment that has come onto the market in recent times is the Lincat Combi Steamer and Self-Cooking Centre, which has made life in the high volume, short time delivery catering market so much easier. Thames Valley Catering is proud to supply these units alongside their Lincat Ovens and the introduction of high tech electronic controls has then enabled these units to be controlled to a very close margin and the flexibility and versatility of the units has helped the units become the ultimate in multi-tasking catering equipment.

The ranges of units supplied by Thames Valley Catering are varied but the major units combine steam heating with dry heat or they can do one or the other. The units control humidity to less than 1 % and have the added advantage that once the type of heating is chosen they are able to predetermine the heating cycle without the help of the operator. This Lincat self cooking center system is ideal in a busy kitchen and the advantages of getting a superb cooking cycle without the fear of damage or loss without careful watching is always a big plus in the purchase of such items. The units supplied by Thames Valley Catering can deal with very high volumes of hot food and this is ideal for the large banquets or dinners, which require instant serving for several hundred people with hot food in great condition. The advantage of these Lincat catering units are that food can be plated up kept in a chilled rack and heated to table serving levels when required using the Lincat Combi Steamer and Self-Cooking Centre.

Lockhart Catering Equipment has announced that a showcase of the latest innovations in catering equipment from over 30 of the world’s leading manufacturers will once again be returning to Wembley Stadium, for one day only on Wednesday 5th September from 10.00am – 4pm. Promising to be bigger and better than ever, ‘The Show’, now in its 4th year, will feature live cooking demonstrations, food samples and top tips from Michelin star chef, Mark Sargeant.

Visitors can also expect to see the latest innovations and gadgets from leading manufacturers such as Rational, Frima International, Winterhalter, Steelite International, Churchill China, Dudson, Gram, Falcon Foodservice, Lincat, Elia International, T&G Woodware and many more.

The experience will kick off with hands on product demonstrations and visitors can also view the latest ‘must-have’ equipment for the catering industry, whilst getting up front and personal with new launches.

A highlight of the day will be the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the London 2012 Olympic Venue, including the kitchens, which cater for up to 90,000 people in a 20 minute half-time interval, plus the changing rooms, press box, Royal box and pitch side.

Chris Wakeman, Managing Director, Lockhart Catering Equipment commented: “We’re thrilled to be returning to Wembley for the fourth consecutive year to showcase the latest innovations in catering equipment. We’d like to extend a very warm welcome to Mark Sargeant who’ll be cooking up some fantastic dishes and taking part in a Q&A session. Visitors will also have the opportunity to see product ranges before buying, as well as taking advantage of amazing price offers exclusively available on the day.”

To register a place, interested parties can visit www.lockhartcatering.co.uk, click on the link ‘join us at the show’ and then the image of Wembley. Alternatively, emailthe.show@bunzl.co.uk. Places are restricted for both the event and the tour of the stadium, so people are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment.